Saturday, July 22, 2006

If this works right, at the press of a button the photo I just took will get uploaded from my Sidekick to the T-Mobile server, then forwarded to my Flickr account where it will get tagged with keywords like 'cameraphone'. Then Flickr will forward the photo and the description to my blogger account, which will format the blog entry and send it to my server as well as pinging the search engines and feedburner which will make the RSS feed all nice and pretty for your news reader.

Of course the last step is for you to download the entry to your computer.

I will be writing from an insider perspective and Hugh will be writing as an outside observer. We are looking forward to great discussion with the blog reading community about the way people interact with documents, our company, and the future of paper.

I will continue to use this blog for Bee Docs' Timeline updates and personal tidbits like book reviews, but my posts at Exbiblio will receive more of my energy and focus over the coming months, so please come over and join us and be sure to add the new blog to your RSS reader.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Here is a photo of my new Sidekick. I bought it so that I could stay connected to AIM and e-mail on my bus commute. Also, my Newsgator account works great on the Sidekick which allows me to catch up on my blog reading while staying in sync with my home and work computer which are running NetNewsWire.

It will also be great for my trip to San Francisco next month. Checking e-mail on my Sidekick in the airport lounge sounds so much better than running around with my laptop trying to find a hotspot for a reasonable price.

I did hours of research comparing this device to the Blackberry 8700. I'm glad I bought the Sidekick even though the Blackberry beats it in many specs. The Sidekick is definitely designed to be used and is more than the sum of it's parts. The keypad is usable and I love how easy it is to multitask between e-mail, web, phone, and instant message. The screen is great in many light conditions, and it's fun to have the keys light up when the bus goes through a tunnel.

Also, being able to organize the contacts, calendar, e-mails, photos, and to-do items from the web and have them instantly synced with the Sidekick is a feature that would be hard to live without.

The down side so far is the buggy third party software for syncing with the Mac and the T-Mobile customer service. Both are workable but could be a lot better.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

I'm thrilled that Exbiblio is sending me to the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco next month. I've been watching the Steve Jobs keynotes and many of the WWDC sessions via Quicktime for the past 5 or 6 years and it will be great fun to finally make the pilgrimage in person.

I'd love to meet any of you who read this blog, particularly those who are using my timeline software, are interested in the Exbiblio project, or are doing Mac based start-ups. Send me an e-mail or an iChat if you going the conference and would like to catch a lunch or something.

I am also excited because San Francisco is one of those magical cities that has a unique soul and energy of its own. In my opinion, "San Francisco" is to "city" what "Empire State Building" is to "skyscraper". It's fun to eat, walk, and take pictures there. For better or worse, it has never lost either it's free spirit and it's gold rush mentality which seems appropriate for an Apple developer conference.

Special thanks to flickr member ivanyen1205 for permission to use his beautiful photos in this post. In another few weeks, I'll get to take my own and will be sure to post the best ones here on the blog and on my flickr account!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

My daughter and I were on our regular walk yesterday, when lo and behold, we came upon Issaquah's "Concerts in the Park" series. The cover band was rocking to hits of the 70's, the hotdog stand was sizzling, and little girls were twirling in the grass.

The most facinating part was this grass hill tranformed into a giant slide. There had to be like 50 kids with large pieces of cardboard riding the grass wave. I like this picture (taken with my new Sidekick) as there are at least 4 kids wiping out at the same time. The boy in the upper left is classic. See how many wipe-outs you can count...